WASHINGTON: Pakistan has unveiled an ambitious programme to privatise 69 entities at the first energy roadshow in the US capital.

Although the roadshow was meant to attract private investment in the energy sector, the list distributed among the participants included investment opportunities in other sectors as well.

According to this list, the government has already approved 39 entities for early implementation of its privatisation programme.

Of these, transactions have already been initiated for 23 entities but so far only have transactions have been completed. These include UBL, PPL, ABL, HBL and NPCC.

The government has so far raised $1.715 billion from these proceeds.

The IMF mission chief for Pakistan, Harald Finger, told a recent news briefing in Washington that the country’s privatisation has had some delays.

“Initially the government, had nothing right and so wanted to set the tone for privatisations and create an atmosphere for it by doing transactions that were basically on the capital market side and were relatively easy to undertake,” he said.

“Now the more difficult ones are coming up and the government has found out that in practice these are more difficult than they had hoped that might be the case.”

Pakistani officials at the roadshow also acknowledged that the event may not lead to investments but it was important to hold the show.

“We want to let US investors know that there are handsome opportunities for investment in Pakistan, particularly in the energy sector,” one of them told the media.

Chairman Privatisation Commission Mohammad Zubair, who launched the roadshow on Thursday, said that with political stability and significant reduction in violence, the country offers ideal investment opportunities.

Take a look: Pakistan seeks US investment at energy roadshow

He informed the prospective investors that the federal cabinet had already approved the structuring of the Faisalabad Electric Co for privatisation and the remaining eight power units were also ready.

Possible investors were told the government had completed “due diligence,” or was in the process of doing so, for PSM, PIAC, Fesco, Lesco, Gepsco, Qesco, Pesco, Mepco, Hesco, Sepco, Kapco, NPGCL, JPCL, LPGCL and CPGCL.

The government also plans to initiate transactions for 10 additional entities, which include SME Bank and State Life Insurance Corporation.

Published in Dawn, October 10th , 2015

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